PHILADELPHIA -- As the Top 10 finishers of this season’s “American Idol” took the stage at Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center last night, one part of their experience was ending – and another part beginning.

Even though they have 21 more dates on the “American Idols Live” tour – I stops Sept. 8 at Sovereign center in Reading and Sept. 9 at Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, today marks the first day the 10 are no longer under the show’s contract with 19 Entertainment, the management company whose chief executive officer is Simon Fuller, creator and executive producer of “American Idol.”

That means those contestants who have not signed a new contract with 19 Entertainment are free to sign with another record label or management group.

That, no doubt, is why third-place finisher Danny Gokey said in an interview Wednesday a record-deal announcement for him was imminent.

19 Entertainment already has announced they’ve signed Season Eight winner Kris Allen, runner-up Adam Lambert and fourth-place finisher Allison Iraheta, and all three are working on debut albums.

In separate interviews at Wachovia Center on Thursday, Iraheta and three other contestants gave a status report on their post-“Idol” careers. Here’s what they said:

ALLISON IRAHETA

Iraheta, the 17-year-old Latina whose personality was as fiery as her shockingly dyed-red hair, said she has already started working on her album, which 19 Recordings – the recording arm of 19 Entertainment, announced in June it has licensed to Jive Records.

“Definitely, I already started working on it,” she said, and has even finisher the photo shoot for its cover.

She said it’s about halfway done, and writing and recording continues on her days off from the tour: the producers simply find her studios along the tour path and she records – which she said she’ll do today.

“Each chance we get,” she says. “They find a place and then I go to and patch in some vocals and record it. mean, it’s kind of weird ‘cause it’s a totally different studio, but you definitely get used to it. And time goes by so fast that you don’t even have time to think about what’s wrong or what’s right, so you’re just pretty much going with the flow.”

She said the plan is to “record several songs and just try knock them out. It’s better to have just a bunch, rather than to have less, so that we can have a bunch to pick out of. So I think that’s what we’re aiming to do right now, is just recording a bunch of stuff, and choosethe best out of that bunch.”

Asked to describe the songs, she said, “They’re definitely rock, definitely rock. Songs are definitely aiming toward, lyrically, reality, as to what people are going through and what I went through in my life. So there are a couple of stuff I wrote myself.So I’m starting off with the rock vibe and the reality of life, pretty much.”

MICHAEL SARVER

Sarver, 28, the country-singing oil rigger who finished 10th, says he’ll definitely have an album out by next year.

“There are some things happening pretty strong right now, but I cannot talk about it yet,” he says. “But there will a press release in time. There will be a Michael album next year, so that is a cool thing, and I’m very excited. He said he expects to head into the studio a couple of weeks after the tour ends.

Sarver said that many opportunities have presented themselves, “even beside a record deal, which is the main thing that we look for. But there are gigs and opportunities to be a part of different things that we’d like to be a part of, and there’s a lot of things that have come to the table that I’m going to be capitalizing on. So I’ll be out and about.”

In fact, Sarver said, so many opportunities have presented themselves, that “to not succeed in some form or fashion,” a contestant would “almost have to walk away from it.”

“People have said, ‘Why didn’t so-and-so make it?’ and ‘Why didn’t so-and-so get an album out?’ I don’t know their lives, I’m not involved in their personal world. But with the platform that we’ve been given, you’d have to walk away from it.

“Maybe you don’t end up a huge recording artist down the road. You might do Broadway. You know, like Constantine. We haven’t seen an album from him at all, but he’s in a huge Broadway show. You have Taylor Hicks – some would say his album didn’t do as great as others, but yet he’s in ‘Grease.’ It’s amazing. There’s so many things to be involved in – so many aspects of the entertainment world , to not succeed as some level to mewould absolutely mean you got into this thing and realized, ‘OK, it’s just not for me.’ … And I’m too driven. I didn’t get on this thing to get on a TV show – I couldn’t care less about TV, being on TV having the 15 minutes of fame. I want to sing.

“And those things are happening, and good things are coming and I can’t wait to be able to talk about them.”

SCOTT MACINTYRE

MacIntyre, the blind 24-year-old who finished eighth, laughed and said he had not heard form 19 Entertainment “unless they do something today.”

But he said, “That’s the way it is with every year on the show. It doesn’t mean that the people they pick up do better or worse. Initially they may, but there’s been a lot of examples of people who have finished elsewhere in the Top 10 that have gone on to great, huge careers. So I’m very excited.”

He said that even before the tour, “I was getting a lot of interest from the industry.” He said he’s been talking with several record labels. “I took a very proactive approach. I’ve never been someone that’s wanted to sit around and get home the day after tour and say ‘What am I going to do now?’ he said, laughing. “I immediately put my feelers out and what not and the response has been very exciting, actually.”

He said he’s halfway through producing and recording his own album, and may end up being purchased by a record label or “it’ll be a hybrid between that and recording the rest of the tracks with them. But it’ll definitely be distributed.”

An “Idol” artist self-releasing a record is possible because “with the power behind us, the excitement and hype of ‘American Idol,’ coming off the show, that kind of takes care of a lot of the preliminary promotion and PR work that needs to be done for an album, and makes that side a lot easier,” MacIntyre said.

People can get a listen to the tracks so far at MacIntyre’s MySpace at www.Myspace.com/scottmacintyre. “It’s all original music – it’s kind of along the lines of Gavin DeGraw, John Mayer, Vanessa Carlton, Bruce Hornsby,” he says. “In the music I write for myself, I love to straddle the gap between pop/rock and singer/songwriter.”

MacIntyre said he’s also gotten offers “on the music publishing side. I’ve received interest from several major publishers about representing me in writing for other artists and bands and it’s definitely something I’m looking at. … I don’t want to give anything away, but if I find the right match – and I may do that very quickly – it would be definitely something worth doing, because you write with some amazing people.”

“I’m very honored at the interest I’ve been getting. … I don’t think there’ll ever be a day when I don’t want to get out on stage and just experience the magic of a live show along with 10,000 people but I love the creative side of music. I love writing, I love producing . I’ve produced in all different kinds of genres, I think that’s something I’d love to do, more so down the line.

“So there’s definitely a lifelong vested interest here and I plan on sticking around – I’ll do whatever I can,” he said, laughing.

He said he also has been approached by a “very renowned” book publisher to tell his story, and is looking at putting out a book as soon as next year.

ANOOP DESAI

Desai, 22, the Indian-American contestant who preferred hip-hop and finished seventh, seemed the least certain of the four concerning his career in music.

He said he’s “nowhere near” where Allen, Lambert, Iraheta or Gokey are in their negotiations, but asked whether he has feelers out, said, “Yeah, yeah. I’m in contact with a lot of people.”

“I’m planning on moving to L.A. and pursuing what I can there,” he said. “And it’s one of those things where I need to better define my sound. All of those people have their sounds and they showcased theirs on the show. I was less successful at doing that. So my goal now is to put some stuff down, record some stuff and go about it that way.

“ I think ‘Idol’ has given us an exposure that we could never have had, so I’m looking forward to try using that to my advantage.”

He said that even though his later performances, in which he crooned standards, won him better response, he still has a love for hip-hop.

“I really want to try and meld those two worlds – that’s what I really see myself doing,” he said.” I’m more in the vein of Ne Yo, because he sort of straddles the line. Certainly it’s not going to T-Pain or Usher that I’m doing in the future – that’s not me.”

The comments to this entry have been closed.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.